The Positively Best Way to Lose Weight (for Nutter Butter Lovers)

Two years ago, I lost 18 pounds in two months, and it wasn’t difficult. I didn’t starve, take diet pills or have a nasty stomach flu. Why do I bring it up? Because I regained the 18 pounds plus more. I’m going back to the well with better habits to lose it again. Here’s my story on how I lost 18 pounds in two months, and you can, too.

The Keto Diet Plan

I tried the keto diet for a couple of unsuccessful, frustrating months. You know the routine — low carbs, high fat, high protein. Doctors developed the ketogenic diet in the early 1900s to control epilepsy. Later it became effective in the treatment of diabetes. The diet became known as therapeutic keto. Eventually, weight-loss gurus discovered therapeutic keto because controlling carbs result in weight loss.

With therapeutic keto, about 75% of your daily calories come from fat, 20% protein, and 5% carbs. Hit these marks, and calories don’t matter. Heaven, forbid you blow past your carb limit one day, and your keto stick doesn’t turn pink. The plan got popular in dieting circles. And it works for many people. But not for me. It never made sense that I’d lose weight eating fat bombs, but who am I to question the experts?

A Better Keto Diet Plan for Me

Then my friend, Mike, passed along the cheat code. It turns out there are two keto plans. Mike taught me that this other keto plan also focuses on carb control but flips the formula on fat and protein — to 30% fat and 65% protein. If you want to hit the program hard, get your fat intake even lower and your protein higher. The higher protein helps maintain muscle mass while you’re losing weight. Carbs are the same, and here’s the key, you do count calories.

Percentage of Daily Calories for My Favorite Keto Diet Plan

It’s so basic. You need a daily calorie deficit to lose weight which is hard to do with fat bombs. I have enough fat, so why plan to eat more? It doesn’t matter if it’s “good” fat or not. Someone will debate me on this, and so be it, but this plan works for me.

I use Carb Manager to track calories and macros. I’ve tried other low carb and keto diet apps but always come back to Carb Manager.

The Secret Sauce is Intermittent Fasting

The other key element is intermittent fasting (IF). Put at least 16 hours between dinner today and your next meal tomorrow. This recovery time is fantastic for your fat-burning hormone (and awesome for diabetics). IF takes a couple of days to get used to but suck it up, warn your family, and barrel through the hangry phase. It gets easier.

This keto/IF plan requires some thought and restraint. To hit high protein numbers while shooting for low fat and low calories can be tricky. You can’t overload on bacon. Sorry. Learn to love boneless, skinless grilled chicken breasts. I’ve always been a dark meat guy, but it’s because Mom always overcooked the breasts. But chicken breasts are great for at least four reasons.

Benefits of Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts

• Efficient — Boneless, skinless chicken breasts have great macros with a 7:1 protein-to-fat ratio. A 12-ounce chicken breast has 70g of protein and 10g of fat. And no carbs.
• Inexpensive — What other forms of equally efficient healthy proteins are $2 a pound?
• Easy — And fast to prepare. I’ll grill 10 pounds on the weekend and eat all week. And no, I don’t overcook them.
• Versatile — Eat as is, cut up for a salad or veggies, or put on a sandwich with no carb bread. Mix chicken cubes with hot sauce and no-fat cottage cheese if you’re a brave soul. It’s not terrible!

Now, About the Nutter Butters

I do love Nutter Butters! And I did forego them for a few weeks. Seeing the initial pounds come off motivated me and eased the pain. The beauty of this plan is that you’re counting calories. You need a 3500-calorie deficit to lose one pound. I need to consume less than 2000 calories a day for a deficit. I started the diet by consuming 1400 calories a day, and then I reduced it even more to 1000 calories. It’s not that hard when you get your mind right, boss. And once I hit an 18-pound loss in two months, I started thinking about math and Nutter Butters.

At a 1000 calorie-a-day deficit from Sunday thru Friday, I’m down 6000 calories for the week. If I’m a good boy until late Saturday night, I can end the week on a Nutter Butter and Netflix binge. Ten Nutter Butter cookies have 700 calories. I can eat them, and my weekly calorie total is 7700, a 6300-calorie deficit — on track for a 1.8-pound weight loss. This idea is more than a theory. It was an actual working plan for a while. Knowing these mad moments were an option maintained my sanity and allowed my inner rebel to break free for a time.

I can only be good for so long.

The Rest of the Story

I eventually fell off the wagon and regained all the lost weight and more. But I’m almost 55-years old, and I have a renewed commitment to feel the very best I can every day. I didn’t enjoy the last two years of being fat.

Never again.